VSU Partnership Helps Students Achieve Reading Success

VALDOSTA -- Although they struggled at the beginning of the
year, third graders at Westside Elementary School receiving reading
assistance from future educators at Valdosta State University
proved that, in the end, they had acquired the knowledge and skills
outlined in the state-adopted curriculum.

By the end of the 2011-2012 academic year, these students could
understand words and phrases, their relationships, and their
nuances; show a steadily growing ability to discern more from and
make fuller use of text; consider a wider range of textual
evidence; exhibit sensitivity to inconsistencies, ambiguities, and
poor reasoning in texts; and more. Because of this, all of them met
or exceeded standards on Georgia’s Criterion-Referenced Competency
Test (CRCT) in the content area of reading -- a requirement for
promotion to the fourth grade.

It was the partnership with VSU that helped the students achieve
success.

Linda Taylor, the third grade teacher who coordinates the
partnership at Westside Elementary School, said, “It truly makes a
difference.”

During the fall 2011 semester, university students in Dr. Gina
Doepker’s LITR 4120: Literacy Assessment and Applications course
worked one-on-one with the students in Taylor’s reading class. It
was an opportunity for the future educators to focus on a
struggling reader’s particular skill set and vocabulary and develop
a unique plan to help him or her become a better reader. They used
a balanced approach to reading instruction, focusing on vocabulary;
fluency; writing, decoding, and comprehension strategies; and other
skills.

The following spring semester, Doepker, a professor in VSU’s
Department of Early Childhood and Special Education and director of
the Ruby R. Sullivan Literacy Center, volunteered her own time
every Tuesday and Thursday in an effort to help the students
discover the fun side of reading. Her efforts led to the students
being selected to represent the Peach State and interview an
Olympic athlete through the Colorado Springs Olympic Training
Center’s Kids Ask Questions Project. They later researched and
wrote letters to their favorite Olympic athletes.

“By working with these children,” Doepker said, “we’re bringing up
their confidence and giving them skills they can use” inside the
classroom in every subject, as well as outside the classroom. “It’s
effective. Their success on the CRCT is phenomenal and says that we
are doing something right. The kids that we work with are purposely
chosen because they are lower-level readers and struggling.”

The Ruby R. Sullivan Literacy Center’s mission is to be an
integrated system of care for the children and families of Valdosta
and surrounding areas with a focus on building children’s literacy
skills, motivation, and confidence. The center serves children in
grades first through fifth, but programs are being developed for
middle school and high school students, as well as prekindergarten
and kindergarten students, said Doepker.

The Ruby R. Sullivan Literacy Center offers several programs
designed to help children in the elementary grades build literacy
skills, gain confidence, and be more motivated to want to read for
both pleasure and study:

• Literacy Education Assessment Program (LEAP): This is a literacy
tutoring program that involves VSU pre-service teachers assessing
the community children’s current literacy skills, developing
specific literacy goals, providing one-on-one research-based
literacy instruction and intervention, and monitoring the
children’s literacy development progress.

• Blazing Through Books Program: This feeder program for LEAP pairs
VSU athletes and students with community children in one-on-one and
small group literacy skill-building activities, such as reading,
writing, listening, and speaking.

• Multidisciplinary Child Advocacy Team (M-CAT): Through this
program, any and all departments at VSU, as well as interested
community organizations, provide identified services for the
community children and families, such as comprehensive assessments,
health screenings, family support and therapy, content area
tutoring, shadowing opportunities, adult literacy, and much
more.

• Dear Blazer Buddy: This is a pen pal program that pairs community
children with VSU athletes and students. It is designed to get the
children involved in a reading and writing activity that is fun and
motivating.

• Blazer Books Television Series: This is a developing program that
gives all VSU faculty, staff, and students, as well as area public
schools, organizations, and others the opportunity to read and/or
recommend their favorite childhood book on camera. The third
graders from Westside Elementary School filmed the first series on
April 19, recommending books related to the summer Olympic sports
they read about all semester.

VSU has had some sort of literacy outreach initiative since
1989.

According to the National Information Center for Children and Youth
with Disabilities, approximately 10 million children in the United
States have difficulty reading. Of these children, 10 to 15 percent
eventually drop out of high school and only two percent complete a
four-year college degree.

About the CRCT
All students in grades first through eighth are required by Georgia
law to take the CRCT in the content areas of reading,
English/language arts, and math. Students in grades third through
eighth are also tested in science and social studies. The tests,
which are administered in late spring, are designed to measure
student achievement of the Common Core Georgia Performance
Standards for reading, English/language arts, and math and Georgia
Performance Standards for science and social studies. These tests
serve as a measure of the quality of education in the state. Also,
Georgia law and the State Board of Education require third graders
show proficiency on the CRCT in reading to be considered for
promotion to the fourth grade. Fifth graders and eighth graders are
required to show proficiency on the CRCT in both reading and math
to be promoted. -- Source: Georgia Department of Education.